The looting of Cyprus’ religious and cultural heritage is one of the most tragic open wounds of the Turkish invasion and ongoing occupation, the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, said on Monday. He was speaking at the Cyprus Museum, where the official handover ceremony took place for repatriated archaeological and ecclesiastical objects from Munich. The objects had been stolen and illegally exported from Turkish-occupied Cyprus by the antiquities thief Aydin Dikmen and were held by the German authorities.
President Christodoulides said in his address that today, in the most official manner, one of the most complex and lengthy cases of repatriation of Cypriot antiquities is completed.
“Today we have the third phase of the repatriation, but for us the process is not complete,” President Christodoulides said, noting that “this process will be completed when all these are placed back in a free and reunited country.”
He added that the looting of Cyprus’ religious and cultural heritage
is one of the most tragic open wounds of the Turkish invasion and ongoing occupation, and this year unfortunately marks its 50th sad anniversary.
“Hundreds of churches and archaeological sites have been looted and tens of thousands of ecclesiastical relics and ancient objects have been illegally exported from our occupied homeland,” President Christodoulides said.
He noted that the looting of museums, ancient monuments and archaeological sites, religious monuments and antiquities collections in the occupied territories is in most cases a permanent and irreversible reality with devastating consequences, and anyone can easily see this if they visit the occupied territories.
The Bishop of Karpasia Christophoros, on behalf of the Archbishop of Cyprus, Georgios, stated that “today is undoubtedly an important day, because after 27 years of persistent effort and judicial struggles, the most important case of theft of Cypriot relics since the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in July 1974 is ended”.
He added that 24 ecc
lesiastical relics and 36 prehistoric and other antiquities are being repatriated, noting that “the convicted antiquities thief passed away in 2021, but we know that his heirs, unfortunately, still possess and illegally traffic stolen cultural goods from Cyprus.”
He said the objects will be kept “until that blessed hour of liberation” at the Archbishop Makarios III Foundation in Nicosia, along with those returned in 2013 and 2015.
For his part, the Director of the Department of Antiquities, Giorgos Georgiou, said that today’s ceremony brings to an end one of the many cases of the uprooting of the culture of Cyprus and formally closes the complex case of the antiquities thief Aydin Dikmen.
He explained that the last 60 antiquities of this case (out of 318 originally), dating from prehistoric times to the 19th century, are being repatriated, and that a significant part consists of ecclesiastical objects which are returned to the Church of Cyprus.
He indicated that the contribution of the Department of Antiq
uities in the Dikmen case is only one part of its multi-level work and efforts to combat the looting and illegal trafficking of the country’s archaeological heritage.
In addition, according to a press release from the Department of Antiquities of the Deputy Ministry of Culture, it is reported that on June 20, 2024, antiquities and ecclesiastical relics that had been stolen and illegally exported by the antiquities thief Aydin Dikmen and detained by the German authorities were repatriated.
It is noted that among the objects that have been repatriated on June 20 are picrolithic figurines and jewellery of the Chalcolithic period, terracotta plank-shaped figurines and pottery of the Early-Middle Bronze Age, bird-shaped figurines and pottery of the Late Bronze Age as well as bronze spearheads. An important part of the repatriated objects are ecclesiastical relics, mainly icons.
“The successful outcome of this difficult case depends on the joint efforts of departments and institutions such as the members of the
National Committee for the Suppression of Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Heritage and the heads of the departments they represent, the Church of Cyprus, whose contribution was and is crucial in any request concerning ecclesiastical objects”, it is added.
Since the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, hundreds of valuable artefacts have been stolen from the northern Turkish occupied areas of the island and found their way into the black market overseas. More than 500 churches have been pillaged, destroyed or turned into museum, inns or silos. Many archaeological sites and other places belonging to the country’s 9,000 year old cultural heritage have been abandoned to the elements.
Source: Cyprus News Agency